all those curved lines are chains of 2, 4 and 6 chains as indicated in the drawing.

Test square: for a width of 3 pattern repeats and a height of 3 patterns => 10x10cm

Back:

Start with the shoulder. Chain 13 + 3 for the edge and you will continue downwards. Make 5 rounds of the pattern and put the work aside.

Start with the other shoulder. After the 6th round of pattern chain 48 (i chained 53 just to make it larger).

After the 48 chain, link it with the other shoulder strap. The work will have 10 pattern repeats per width.

Continue work until you have 7 pattern repeats on the vertical.

Armhole shaping:

Make it wider with 7 chains + 3 chains for height, on each side, for the armhole shaping. Work will have 12 pattern repeats per width.

At 13 pattern repeats in total per vertical, first row increase to 5 chains instead of 4. Next row the height will increase from 3 to 4 chains. Next row the chain is increased from 6 chain stitches to 7 chain stitches.

At 19 pattern repeats in total per vertical, increase everything with one chain:

instead of 5 chain stitches => 6 chain stitches

instead of 4 chain stitches => 5 chain stitches on the side

instead of 7 chain stitches => 8 chain stitches

After 26 pattern repeats the back side is finished.

Front:

Just like the back. I did mine wider with two pattern repeats to fit the bust.

I cannot decide what to sew. My intention was to sew a PJ with long sleeves and pants to have something that breaths well in the sleeping bag and dries faster then cotton… but just can’t decide…I’d like to be able to also wear the top as is, not just as a PJ…

04/2009

05/2008

04/2008

10/2008

03/2008

The last two are my favorites…so far…
Or should I simply stick to the drape neckline of the simple yellow top?

I had one of those moments of inspiration yesterday followed by the sewing addiction and sleepless hours in front of the machine. You know those moments? I’m sure all of us sewing addicts have them often.

My sister in law visited us this weekend and she is always very stylish. She wore a breezy light cotton, had a band a woven band around the neckline, the fabric was gathered on this band.

if A -> B -> C then A -> C

woven band -> crochet collar

light breezy cotton -> embroidered cotton gauze

There I was putting the pieces of the puzzle together, pinning the fabric on the dress form, marking, cutting and sewing till after midnight. The collar was already crochet just looking for a match.

The whole top is underlined using the same fabric, the fabric is cut in a double layer so it eliminates the sheerness. The helped a lot with the finishing of the seams, the right side was first sewn to the underlining at the neckline and armholes, for front then the same for the back. A topstitch seam creates a nice finish and keeps the underlining from rolling up to the right side. The back has a cut in the center, the lining and underlining were sewn together, just like when you are working with a facing, but this time the facing is as long as the top.The side seams are sewn like a tube, the underlining side seams and then the top’s side seams all in one long seam. Turn everything to the right side, sew the crochet part onto the top. Sew a little further away from the crochet’s edge, I like to leave the edge of the crochet hang freely over the fabric, so the seam doesn’t even show. Or it can be attached by hand…but I’m too lazy.

I didn’t know what to do with the hem, since I had two layers of fabric now. I had the chose of cutting the top layer shorter and let the bottom layer visible, but I sewed them together over a folded band.

The next morning I woke up to wear my breand new top :) Thanks Ioana for the inspiration.

Oh, and I did it all by draping on the dress form, no pattern for the crochet part either. It has matching pineapple earings to go with it! Photos pending of course.

The others are the UV protection fabrics for the shirts. The red and green are a little fuller but will be great for the long sleeved versions, the plaid ones are very soft to the touch and thinner, looking forward to sewing those. The colors for me are not really muted, red and pink, but oh well…why not be a little girlie…even if it is sports wear.

I wish that Rocky Woods would have better pictures of the actual fabric, like the fashion fabrics club has. That would make the whole buying stuff online an easier choice. They do offer samples, I just didn’t want to wait that long.

Now I have to carefully choose a pattern for the softshells and already have some patterns in mind for the shirts.

I do need more advice on the seam sealing process. Will the seam tape that is ironed on hold over the fleece backing? Will the SeamGrip work? hmm….

Updated: After all the research, I decided to call Rocky Woods, actually spoke to a nice person, no robots, and she told me that the iron on tape will probably peel off from the fleece backside, as I suspected. I will try the shoe goo on a scrap piece, since I already have that at home and they say it is similar to SeamGrip. If that doesn’t work either, I will simply sew a double seam, maybe a french like seam…that will also look good on the inside if it is not too bulky, or use some bias tape, maybe reflective…or who knows, I’ll play a little with the scraps…

To obtain the drape effect on the front neckline, I’ll draw some lines on the Lydia Top from BurdaStyle to make it similar to the pattern I used. I haven’t tested this, but I’m trying to give you an idea of how the pattern actually is.

Discard the neckline facings. These will be cut in one piece with the front and back.

Raise the inner corner of the shoulder seam in the back just a little, and also the center back line. Create a V shaped line at the outer corner of the shoulder seam, to create the back facing, that will fold in when sewn. Cut in a small pinch at the tip of the V line, to stitch the shoulder seam and the facing line when sewing the front piece to the back piece. The facing will be folded inwards, thus visible finishing seams will not show on the right side of the fabric.

For the front side, elongate sideways the pattern at the shoulders, draw the same V line and create the facing by raising the neckline.

I hope this is useful, and you get an idea of how the drape in the front can be created. The drawing is similar to the pattern I have used, and I think that Lydia can be adjusted this way.

This is a sheer paisley fabric, so I underlined the front wrapped pieces with the same fabric.

The blouse has a side invisible zipper and a false ribbon bow.

The back neckline and the sleeves’ hem are gathered by sewing with elastic thread in the lower bobbin, using a longer stitch step (4mm). Sew two double parallel lines with the elastic about 5mm apart, then pull on the elastic ends to achieve the desired gathering length and securely tie the elastic and the thread in a few knots.
I like to wear this with an embroidered cami underneath, not only because of the sheerness of the fabric, but also because the wrap is very revealing especially when I move…I love the look of wrap blouses and dresses, but one would need to really fill them so they would stay close to the body…me…I get a cami.

I’ve wanted to make this one for sooo long. It’s amazing to see a crochet pattern that is so interesting, modern and really unique. I enjoyed how the yarn took shape after taking it of the loom. This is a lot of fun to make since it can be tried on after the first row. It really is really fast and really easy to make!

The speed of this project is simply incredible and the instructions are crystal clear. I would like to see one of those diagrams for it though…otherwise there’s a whole lot of reading, but in all the pattern is actually simpler then described.

I might even have the courage to give this another try in a different yarn as a dress.

I do love this yarn especially for crochet because it is woven and can be handled easily. I would prefer a drape-ier yarn for this pattern though, this is just a little stiff, but just a little.

The poppies are alpaca fibers nuno felted onto olive green crinkled silk organza.
I used embroidery thread to sew over the poppies in free motion.
I adore this little blouse although it seem to look childish to me…maybe that’s a good thing, feeling young. Or maybe I’ll simply never grow up :)

P.S. This is me with my hair “straightened”, the way I had it before I was 12.
What do you think? Marius hates it…I think it’s simply a matter of getting used to and I also think I could use a better cut

Felt inspired one day remembering these iris flowers in from of my apartment building where I grew up. I knew that once they bloom spring time began.

Memories and nature inspired me to make a flowy silk blouse with embroidered iris flowers. My blouse is a mixture of natural materials (silk and alpaca fibers) with different techniques combined (felting and free motion embroidery).

Materials:

I found the fibers at a World Market store, not in a crafts shop. They are naturally dyed, 100% Alpaca fibers, very soft to the touch.

The silk organza is from fashion fabrics club. I bought it online and was surprised as always with the great quality. It is sheer and crinkles when washed. The color is a light olive green.

I have made the felt in a non traditional way (not with felting needles), I used a variegated thread and sewn in free motion over the natural alpaca fibers.

How to:

Pre-treat your fabric like you will when the final project is worn. Wash it by hand in warm water with mild soap and line dry. This will make the fabric shrink and crinkle. You can iron it a little on low temperature before cutting out the pattern. Lay your pattern pieces over the fabric and allow enough fabric for seam allowances (see the tips and tricks on working with silk first).

You will need a free motion foot or darning foot attached to the machine. Drop the feed dogs. This will allow you to move the fabric in any direction you want, just keep it at a steady pace, to make equal stitches in length.

Iron on tear away light stabilizer on the wring side of your fabric, where the application will be. Do this after the pattern pieces were cut out and before they are assambled for sewing. Try to do this on a scrap piece and see if you can rip it off easily, without damaging the fabric. On my organza, I could tear it away by pulling grain wise. Pulling cross grain would tear my fabric also.

Trace the drawing on the right side of your fabric. Use an embroidery transfer crayon or chalk. I used a piece of dry soap to trace and it will come out easily with water when washed.

Hand form the shapes of the flowers according to the drawing. Mix in different colors for shadows and highlights.

Use the variegated thread to free hand embroider. Do the contour first and then fill out the center parts, moving the fabric with your hands back and forward so that you go at least twice over every stitch and allow the thread to accumulate. Directions in which to move your fabric depend on the drawing, try to imagine the lines. You can incorporate bead, sew over yarns and ribbons, use your imagination. I wanted to keep it kind of simple.

When the embellishment is finished, continue sewing the garment.

For this project I used a serged narrow rolled hem with the variegated thread.

Wash it again under warm water and try to felt the portions with the fibers. This will create a less tidy look and it will enforce the fibers to mix together creating a stronger fabric.